You Don't Know What You Have Until it's Gone
by spiderwriters
Summary: Danny 'Daffy' Dodgers had just gotten used to his life in the 24th and a half century after accidentally getting frozen. Everything was going well until an attack during an escort mission turned his life upside down. Now, Dodgers has to make an important decision, save his best friend he had thought had been long dead, or save the universe. Baffy. Human AU. Bugs 404
1. Chapter1

**This story now has a rewrite. It won't be as Baffy focused, but this story will still be here. I may come back to this and update this later if there is demand for this version. You can also check the rewrite out on ao3, its under the same username as this one.**

Danny Dodgers couldn't remember what happened to get him frozen; all that he knew was that it happened and he was now stuck in the twenty-fourth and a half century. At first it took a while to adjust, everyone he had ever known or cared for from his own time had long since passed. That had to be the biggest adjustment for Dodgers to swallow. Technology had come a far way and took quite a bit adjustment to for him to figure out. Regardless of the technology jump, Dodgers was able to catch on quick, although the evaporators did give him grief ever now and again. Once he was acclimated to the new time period and culture, Dr. I.Q. thought it would be a good idea for him to join the Galactic Protectorate. Somehow Dodgers was able to sweet talk his way to a captain's position. He even had an eager space cadet, Percy Peggen, who aided him on missions and helped kept him in line as often as he stuttered.

Now, Captain Dodgers was on an escort mission. Danny and Percy were on edge as they escorted a princess from some planet Dodgers didn't bother to learn the name of, from Earth back to her planet. She was an attractive alien babe. Her long flowing hair would flip with every step she took. Her dress swept the floor and clung to her, not leaving much to the imagination. But right now, Dodgers attention needed to be somewhere else, his scanners.

Their radars scanned deep dark space for any possible Martian Empire ships. It didn't help that they were passing an asteroid belt. Every blip on the radar gave Dodgers and Percy a heart attack. It had almost gotten to the point where whenever they would hear a blip they would cast it aside, but Dodgers did not want to get scolded by Dr. I.Q. for messing up such an important mission. Flashing lights and blaring sirens made everyone on the ship jump out of their skins. Dodgers looked over at his Cadet, hoping to hear a report for a false alarm.

"C-captain, e-e-enemy ships on the rad-rad-rad - scanner sir!" Percy shouted as he rushed over to the ships controls.

Dodger's heart sank and pounded as he saw an armada of Martian Empire ships floating in a blockade in front of them. There were so many ships it made Captain Dodgers' head spin. Surely they had to be here to kidnap the princess, why else would they be here in this area of space. His brown eyes quickly looked around at the trap in front of him. He had to act quick or else they would be in quite the pickle.

"Strap in your Highness! Ready evasive maneuvers and call for backup!" Dodgers shouted, taking command of the ship.

Before Percy could even think about how to maneuver from the armada, a transmission flashed a life onto the screen. Dodgers scowled when he saw a familiar face on the screen, it was the Maritain Commander, X2. Oh how Dodgers wanted to punch that smug face in front of him. Things were going smoothly, and this guy had to show his ugly Martian mug.

"Greeting Dodgers."That smug Martian said coyly.

Dodgers stared up at the screen, his brown eyes locking onto the Martian in front of him. The two glared at each other. Danny had to think of something snappy to say, but the intensity of the situation pushed every sense of creativity from his brain.

"We're on an escort mission." Dodgers sneered at the screen in front of him. "Disperse immediately or be violation of the Intergalactic Treaty of 2156."

Even though he could only really see the Martian's eyes, Dodgers could tell that X2 was smirking, and he hated it. He knew that he and X2 were going to go round in verbal circles until someone made the first move. He shot his cadet a look, telling him to be ready at a moment's notice for a quick escape. When this went south, Dodgers wanted to be the one to make the first move, but for now, they needed to play the waiting game. Looking back at his cadet, Dodgers inwardly sighed with relief when he saw that the distress signal had been sent. At least back up was on it's way. Maybe they could just sit this situation out.

"Ah, I see, well please forgive us Dodgers..."X2 apologized with a small bow.

Captain Dodgers raised an eyebrow. Something was about this situation sat well with the young captain. What was X2's game? He had to be planning something, he'd never surrender so easily. As if on cue, there was an explosion behind them. Their ship jolted as the door leading to the brig was blasted off it's frame. Dodgers was hit with a piece of the door frame and he saw stars, and not the stars out in space in front of him. He heard the princess let out a shriek as someone stepped through the door frame. Dodgers fumbled with his seat belt and reached for his blaster. He pulled it out and aimed it at the intruder, who was shrouded in smoke. Captain Dodgers moved quickly to place himself in front of the princess, blocking the intruder's access to her.

He heard X2's conceited voice behind him, soaking up this victory. "...but we thought we would let you see an old friend of yours."

The smoke had cleared up enough for him to see who had dared to invade his ship. Captain Dodger's heart stopped. His knees started to buckle. It took every last bit of effort not to collapse onto the ground. The blaster in his had shook as it was pointed at none other than Branden 'Bugs' Harren.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to WhyTheCagedBirdSings for faving and following.**

"Bugs?" Dodgers choked out.

Branden was nearly beyond recognition. His dirty blond hair was longer than it used to be and was slicked backwards, although a few unruly locks of hair fell into his eyes. Speaking of his eyes, his friend's once bright blue eyes now looked red, irritated, and had dark bags under his eyes. Branden's face was practically expressionless, although there was a feint scowl that was barely noticable. And he was dressed in a black and red mechanical space suit.

Brandon saw Dodgers standing in front of the alien princess. His friend gave him the most hate filled glare Dodgers had ever seen. It made Danny sick to his stomach. What had happened to Brandon? There was no way that this was his Brandon. How could it be?

"Move." Brandon ordered in a cold and emotionless voice.

"Brandon?" Dodgers asked, uncertainty still coated his voice. "What are you doing?"

From around Brandon's hand, his gloved moved with mechanical sounds. In the blink of an eye, a tblaster now took the glove's place. Dodgers stared at the weapon. It had to be Martian technology. Dodgers was frozen to his spot.

"Ebidi-ebidi back a way from the ebidi-prin-ebidi-princ-ebidi your highness." The egager cadet demanded as he pointed his blaster at Brandon.

Brandon let out a huff and rolled his eyes. Brandon's arm cannon was directed at Percy. Before Dodgers could even comprehend what was happening, Brandon fired. Percy flew back into the control panel and knocked out cold. With one fluid motion, Brandon held his arm back put at Captain Dodgers and let a blast loose. Dodgers went flying and everything went black for the young captain.

When Dodgers came to, back up had finally arrived, but the princess was no where in sight. Doctor I.Q. was busy patching him up when when Dodgers was able to make sense of everything. Captain Star Johnson was busy questioning Percy, filling out a report and no doubt trying to pin this on Dodgers. Percy's look of relief upon seeing him awake caused Captain Star Johnson to turn in his direction.

"Ah, Captain Dodgers. So glad to see that you've come to. Care to explain how you let the Princess of Galatais Seven get kidnapped right in front of you?" Star Johnson had a look in his face that seemed as though this was exactly what he wanted.

Dodgers decided to ignore Star Johnson and looked over at his Cadet. "How are you feeling Percy?"

Percy smiled waekly and rubbed his head, "Fine Captain. Just a bump from smacking the console."

Dodgers nodded. "Good." He then looked back at Johnson, "Sorry, but a good captain always puts his crew first."

Johnson just gave him a look that said "explain."

"You've seen the footage, haven't you?" Dodgers asked in a bitter tone. "It's probably the first thing you did. We were ambushed in the asteroid field, on a path set by the Protectorate. We were then boarded and attacked by an intruder. Although, everything is a little fuzzy there seeing as i was smacked in the head with a piece of door." Dodgers was doing his best to hide that he remembered Brandon, after all it was probably just a look a like sent to get inside his head; and unfortunately, it worked.

Star Johnson tapped his fingers on his crossed arms. "Care to explain how the intruder 'Brandon' knew your password to your evaporator?"

Dodgers paled and his stomach lurched. No, no way. How could, no, it couldn't be...

"What?" He asked, hoping that he had heard wrong.

"He got in through your evaporator Dodgers. He had to have known your password." Captain Star Johnson repeated.

Danny ran his hands through his hair in disbelief. No, no, no, no. But... how... it... it couldn't be... it just couldn't be.

"Let me guess, your password was 1234?" Johnson sounded smug, like he had won a victory.

Dodgers snapped at him, "No! I'm not that idiotic!"

"Oh, and what is it then, 12345?" Captain Star Johnson prodded.

"W3r3$0h ppy2g3+h3r2009." Dodgers answered, staring at the ground. "Back in the 21st century, it would have taken 5 trilion years to crack, now it would take a billion. It was a secure password."

Johnson raised an eyebrow, "Then how did it get figured out then? How did you allow the mission to get compromised?"

Danny was silent for a moment before confessing, "Because outside of the Federation, only one other person knew my password. And until earlier, I thought that he had died three hundred years ago."

Star glared down at him, arms crossed, "Let me guess, Brandon?"

"Yes." Danny answered, still refusing to make eye contact.

Before any more questions were asked, the communication screen flashed. Dodgers gave Percy a loom, telling him to allow the transmission. He sneered at the person in front of him.

"Greetings again Dodgers." X2 smirked.

"Tell us where the princess is." Dodgers demanded.

X2 mused with a chuckle, "Oh, we do not have her, your friend does. And in case you had any doubts that it was indeed him, go check your evaporator. I will wait. I can't wait to see the look on your face Dodgers."

One look was all it took for Percy to rush down to the evaporator. They didn't have to wait long to see what had been sent. Dodgers' heart stopped when he saw what was in Percy's hand, a small ring box. Dodgers opened it and saw a small flash drive with a simple gold ring around it. Dodgers recognized the ring, but not the flash drive.

"That little piece of obsolete inferior Earth technology and that box were with your friend when we found him." X2 started tapping his fingers together. "But my my, there are some interesting things in that piece of Earth garbage, and one particularly interesting thing on it involves _you_ Captain Dodgers. Why don't we all take a look."


	3. Chapter 3

Dodgers had no idea why X2 seemed so smug. What could possibly be on this flash drive to make the martian behave that way. Maybe it was a video of him playing a scary game with Brandon. That had to be it. He could see X2 feeling superior for showing everyone a scared and cowardly younger Captain Dodgers. He tried thinking of a witty comment to knock X2 down a peg, to show him that no amount of blackmail could take down good ol' Capatin Danny Dodgers. But he needed to save his comeback for when he knew what video he was going to play.

The communicator screen flickered as the video changed from X2 to a familiar seen. Dodgers' heart pounded and stomach twisted itself into knots. Captain Dodgers saw Brandon on the screen. He was busy staring at something in front of him. He looked so young, he had to have just gotten out of high school. Captain Dodgers recognized the back ground behind Brandon. It was an all too familiar bedroom. A pair of arms wrapped themselves around Brandon's neck and Dodgers saw his face come into frame as he rested his chin on Brandon's shoulder.

"We get home after a week of being at my parents and the first thing you want to do is mess with that stupid camera of yours." Dodgers dead panned with a look of disappointment.

Brandon tilted his head and slightly shrugged. "Just getting it set up so we can do reactions when we play horror games. And if your reactions during horror movies are any indication, our viewers are going to get pleanty of entertainment watching you freak out."

"Cut the transmission." Captain Dodgers ordered as his stomach felt so uneasy, he felt like he might get sick right then and there.

This couldn't be happening. This could not be remembered exactly where this was headed. And this was the last thing he wanted anyone to see. Damn X2. He knew that smug Maritain was watching him squirm and that made a fire burn inside Dodgers.

"Ebidi-ebidi- captain, the transmission is jammed." Percy relayed as he mashed buttons on the control panel.

Captain Dodgers ran his hands through his hair as the scene played on. This was great, this was just perfect. His day was just getting worse. X2 had him right where he wanted him. But for the love of God, why did Brandon have this on a flash drive? He thought that got deleted when it happened.

"Unjam it then." Captain Dodgers barked.

The young Danny let out a frustrated groan. "Cooome ooooooon. It's been a week since we've been alone."

Brandon tried to hide a smile as clicking and typing was heard on the screen. "Okay, fine. I'll set it up later."

Danny smiled in victory and gave Brandon a kiss on the cheek. He had let go of Brandon and flopped down onto the bed. There was a couple of clicks from a mouse and Brandon stood up, pushing the chair back.

Captain Dodgers was at the control panel, pressing every button he could in an attempt to turn the screen off. How were they jamming their controls? Come on, come on, work, something work. He flinched when he heard him and Brandon kissing on the screen above him. His face grew bright red as he heard his hums and moans of pleasure, knowing that all eyes were either on him, or his younger self. Any button, please, just work, please. Come on, he had to stop this.

The kissing stopped. There was just the sound of the computer fan quietly whirring. Maybe the video stopped. Dodgers prayed that that was the case. His dreams were dashed when he heard his voice speak in between kisses, "You know... the... camera light... is on... right? I think.. it's recording."

Brandon replied nonchalantly as his hands worked their way under Danny's shirt, "It's probably because it has power, the last one did that too. It's not recording anything. I just installed the software for it. I didn't have time to mess with the programming. It can't be recording."

"If you say so..." His voice sounded unsure.

He continued to jam at the buttons as his younger self went back to kissing Brandon. It felt like he couldn't breath as he prayed they could stop the video. He swallowed hard as he glanced up at the screen, expecting the worst. His younger shelf was missing his shirt and he was practically tearing off Brandon's shirt. Off it came and it was flung away.

This had to stop. The video was about to go from PG13 to a mature rating. He needed to do something, and do it fast. Dodgers reached for his blaster to find that it wasn't there. His younger self was messing with the belt buckle on Brandon's pants. He looked around and found his blaster laying under his chair. It must have flown out of his hand when he was knocked out. Dodgers grabbed his blaster and fired at the screen the second before the video took a massive nose dive.

If all eyes in the room weren't on him before, they were now. There was just the sound of the blaster cooling down and the crackling from the busted wires in the monitor. Dodgers stood there, paralyzed, for a moment, not really believing that that just happened. His heart pounded loudly in his ears. Danny's face burned hot and red from embarrassment and pure rage. He slowly lowered his arm and dropped the blaster. It clattered to the ground and Dodgers took off.


	4. Chapter 4

X2 grinned at the sight of Captain Danny Dodgers squirming. Now the great Captain Dodgers felt the humiliation that he caused him on a near daily basis, and the video wasn't even to where things got _interesting_. Oh how Dodgers desperately tried to end the transmission. The poor fool thought that he could stop it. X2 just chuckled. He knew when he came up with this plan that he would see Dodgers squirm, but he didn't think he'd see Dodgers quite like this.

Commander X2 remembered when he went back in time to prevent Dodgers from winning that football game. The humiliation and embarrassment of realizing he was the one who made Dodgers into the man he was now irked him to no bounds. But it was only after thinking about his trip back in time that he recalled something. It wasn't only him and his team that made Dodgers who he was, it was that man with the dirty blond hair that Dodgers hung out with. X2 decided another trip back in time was called for.

And by how was he correct. After keeping close tabs on Dodgers and that man he discovered something quite interesting. They seemed to spend so much time together, going to parties or hanging out. It was so strange seeing Dodgers, the wanna be ladies man ignoring the women at every party they went to. He just hung out with the man with dirty blond hair. Perhaps the wanna be ladies man bit was all just an act. It certainly had to be when much to X2's surprise, he watched as Dodgers nervously made his way into a jewelry store.

X2 had invisibly cloaked himself and snuck in through the back. Dodgers, so uncharacteristically bit his lip and looked nervous standing in the store. Even after winning the football game, Dodgers had still yet to reach the potential hero Commander X2 would come to know and despise with every sense of his being. Dodger's brown eyes glanced across the cases of rings in front of him. When the clerk approached Dodgers, it seemed as though the young man wanted to to turn around and take off out the store.

"Can I help you?" The old cleric asked.

Dodgers rubbed the back of his neck and tried to find his words. X2 could see that Dodgers seemed to be putting pressure on his back foot, ready to back away at a moments notice. "Um... I... uh..."

"What kind of girl are you wanting to impress?" The clerk asked, trying to be helpful.

Dodgers took a step back, his eyes looked at the floor. "Never mind. I'm not sure if I should even be in here. Sorry to waste your time." He turned and went to leave the store.

The clerk called out, "Come on kid. I see that look in your eye. You're in love. I know that look anywhere. So tell me, what's holding you back?"

Dodgers paused, his hand on the doorknob. He sighed and made his way back over to the counter.

"It's not a girl." Dodgers answered.

The clerk slowly nodded. "Ooooh, I see. So, who's the luck guy?"

Dodgers smiled and seem to gain that confidence that X2 knew all too well. "I've known him ever since I moved when I was in middle school. He was the first and only person I've ever cared for. We've been dating since high school, but...with girls, everyone knows you're supposed to get them a ring with a big diamond on it. But that's not... you know? I don't know what I should do."

The clerk drew out a long breath and tapped his bearded chin. "Well, I think if you don't want to go flashy, a simple band might be right up you're ally."

X2 tapped his fingers and grinned. Such an interesting discovery. He pondered all the ways he could use this to his advantage. Perhaps mentioning the chap he hung out with would throw Dodgers off long enough for a pinnacle part of one of their invasions to finally work. But then he got a twisted idea, a better idea than just mentioning the chap. This had to be planned at just the right time in order to work though. Fortunately,at this point in time, Dodgers associated him with a coach and a mentor. He just needed the right timing to get Dodgers alone. When the time came, the martian approached the young soon to be hero.

"Greetings Dodgers." X2 said in a cheery voice.

Dodgers looked up from his phone and smile. "Oh hey again. I thought that you were long gone after I won that game. What's up with you?"

This was all too perfect.

"Say Dodgers, I saw you the other day going into certain jewelry store. You weren't looking were you?" X2 asked.

Dodgers' blushed and rubbed the back of his next and admitted. "I was getting an engagement ring."

"Ooooh." X2 tried luring Dodgers into a sense of security. "And when were you finally going to pop that question. I'm sure they're expecting it any time now."

X2 could see the smile work it's way onto Dodger's face as he spoke, "I'm sure Brandon is. But, he'll just have to wait two weeks. Brandon and I would have been dating for five years that Tuesday and I couldn't think of a better time than then."

X2 nodded as the gears in his head formed a plan. "Ah, I see. I just wanted to wish you the best of luck." Now was the time to work Dodgers' confidence up. "If you're the brave Dodgers I know this will go off without a hitch."

"Thanks for that." Dodgers replied, a sense of relief seemed to run through the college boy.

With that, X2 warped back to his own time. He scanned through records. X2 needed to know the exact date Dodgers went missing in order for this plan to work. There was a pang of sadness but it was quickly overcome with a sense of victory when he saw that Dodgers had disappeared the three days of his planned engagement. Now, to travel back in time and enact his devious plan.

When he arrived to the day Dodgers planned to woo that Brandon fellow, he found himself outside of Dodger's dorm. The martian knocked on the door. It door swung open almost immediately. He was met with a look of devastation from the person on the other side of the door.

"Oh, hey, you were Danny's coach right?" Brandon asked.

X2 nodded. "Indeed I was."

Brandon ushered him into the small dorm. There wasn't much to it. Two beds, two desks with computers, and two tables seemed to be the only furniture in the room. It was small and quaint. Earthlings were so peculiar.

"You haven't seen him, have you? I don't know where he is. He's been missing for three days." His voice sounded worried.

The Martian Commander hid his grin the best he could. Perfect. This plan was going ever so nicely.

X2 grinned. "Oh, I know where we can find him."

Brandon's eyes light up with hope X2 had never seen before. "Where?"

"In the twenty fourth and a half centrury." X2 said as he raised his time travel gun and fired it at Brandon.


	5. Chapter 5

X2 teleported right behind Brandon a few seconds later. The young man stood in the Martian palace, clearly scared an confused. He ran his fingers through his dirty blond hair. The young man spun around so much that the Commander got dizzy just by watching him.

"Where, where am I?" Brandon more or less demanded, his eyes flicking around the foreign architecture.

"You are in the Martain Palace in the twenty fourth and a half century." The Commander answered.

Brandon grew red in the face and screamed, "What? You said you would take me to Danny!"

The young man's anger quickly subsided as he sunk to the ground. He buried his face in his hands. Gray eyes stared at the red tile in front of him.

"This is all my fault." Brandon whispered to himself. "We got into a fight, our third one that week. He had had enough and stormed out - didn't take anything with him, no phone, no keys. He's went missing because I was having a bad day and took it out on him. And now, I'm stuck here in whatever hell I got myself in and I'm never going to get to see him again, get to say that I'm sorry.

"Don't worry though you'll see Dodgers soon enough, but we're not ready for you to see him yet." X2 answered.

Before Brandon could open his mouth to ask any questions, he was frozen in place. Commander X2 called a group of subordinates to assist him with the transfer of their new captive. As the human was loaded up for transport, he heard footsteps behind him. Queen Tyr'ahnee approached Commander X2 with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms.

"What is that Earthling doing in my palace, Commander?" The Queen asked.

X2 couldn't hold back his excitement as he spoke. "He is here because I believe he is the key to undoing Captain Daniel Dodgers."

The Martian queen seemed skeptical. "And what makes you think that?"

Commander X2 puffed out his chest with pride. "After carefully monitoring Dodgers in the past, I made quite the discovery. He and Dodgers were quite close in the twenty first century. I believe that if we put him in the 404 program, when Captain Rodgers sees what has become of his friend, it will leave him utterly devastated."

Queen Tyr'ahnee smiled and nodded her head. "I hope that you are correct. Perhaps we can get rid of Captain Dodgers once and for all. But what makes you so sure that this Earthling getting put the 404 program will devistate Dodgers enough to break him?"

"When Dodgers sees the person he wanted to marry no longer recognize him and had become under our full control, I think he would do anything to get his friend back, or die trying."

* * *

Commander X2 made sure the earthling was placed into the 404 program in the deepest pits of the palace. One of his subordinates gave him the belongings that the Earthling had on him. X2 smiled at the sight of the box containing the engagement ring. The Earthling must have found it. He started to think up ways to use this against Dodgers. But the second object he was handed, made X2's eyebrow raise. It was a piece of ancient Earth technology. What wonders could such a primitive device hold? Maybe this might hold another key to Dodger's undoing.

X2 commanded his subordinates to come up with a way to remove the data from the small stick. It took them a week to figure out, but that week was worth it. X2 had what he needed to break Dodgers. All the commander needed was the perfect time to play this card, and Captain Dodgers would be out of their hair forever.

With his trump card in hand, the martian commander took the long elevator ride down to the laboratory. He went through countless hallways until arriving to the laboratory containing project 404. The Earthling was donned in the red and black mechanical suit. Wires and sensors connected the figurative lab rat to a series of computers. The human was out cold, letting the new programming take over.

"How is it coming along?" Commander X2 inquired as he inspected the lab rat.

Without looking up from his computer, the subordinate answered. "All memories have been backed up in our data banks and have been wiped from the subjects memory. His programming is nearly complete and should be done within the week."

X2 nodded with satisfaction. "Good, good. Anything useful from this Earthling's memories?"

"It seemed as though this human and Commander Dodgers shared a computer and knew each other's passwords. I was curious and wondered if Dodgers still used his old passwords." the subordinate smirked.

"Go on.." X2 probed.

Without skipping a beat the martian continued, "He does. And he uses them for everything. We were able to hack the Galactic Protectorate and infiltrate their data bases. Captain Dodgers will be on an escort mission with the Princess of Galatais Seven this Friday. I believe that would be the best time to unveil project 404 to the universe. It gives enough time to make sure that the programming holds up."

Commander X2 reveled in the thought of his upcoming victory. "Yes, perfect. Soon Captain Dodgers as we know him will be no more."

* * *

The Marian Commander grinned from ear to ear. This was the most amazing sight he had ever seen. Dodgers had completely lost his confident demeanor. The human desperately tried turning off his screen as one of his most private moments was being broadcasted in front of have of his precious Galactic Protectorate. His face was bright red with embarrassment. X2 reveled in every moment of Dodgers' public humiliation. If X2 was correct, the video was about to get _interesting._ Dodgers looked around desperately as he too knew what was about to happen on that video. Commander X2 laughed as he saw Captain Dodgers rush to pick up his rifle. Even though Dodgers had blasted his monitor, X2 was still able to receive the signal from Dodger's ship. The look on Dodgers face when he shot the monitor was priceless. X2 chuckled at seeing the mighty Captain Dodgers retreat from his own bridge. Perfect, things were going exactly how Commander X2 planned, now for the next phase of the plan to begin.


	6. Chapter 6

Dodgers ran passed the sea of stunned onlookers and down the halls of the space ship. The walls all seemed to blur together. Dodgers couldn't tell if it was because he was so zoned out or the mix of emotions caused his eyes to tear up. But he knew this ship like the back of his hand and ran right into the bathroom. No sooner as the door slammed behind him did he loose his stomach's contents into the toilet.

Oh God, oh God, how could this be happening. This had to be a nightmare, it just had to be. There could be no other explanation. Dodger pinched himself and yelped. Damn, that always worked. The weight of the situation slammed into Captain Dodgers full force. Another wave of nausea passed through him. He knew he'd get in trouble for destroying the monitor, but he'd rather have that than show one of his intimate moments shown to half of the Protectorate. It was bad enough that that smug martian had seen it all. After only a few seconds of peace and solitude there was a knock on the bathroom door.

"Captain?" Percy's concerned voice came from the other side of the door. "Are you alright?"

Dodgers leaned his head against the metallic wall. He let out a sigh. Duty called and he was going to have to come out sooner or later. Dodgers would have preferred later, but based on how things were going today, he was not going to get what he wanted.

"As good as I can be." Dodgers replied before flushing.

Captain Dodgers turned on the sink and applied a gratuitous amount of toothpaste to his tooth brush. He scrubbed the bad taste in his mouth. After swishing some mouthwash in his mouth, Captain Dodgers was ready to go out and face the music. His young and eager cadet waited patently outside of the door for him. Percy flashed him a comforting look. Danny wearily gave him a smile, but it faded as quickly as it appeared. Percy handed him the box.

"I thought that you'd w-w-want this." Percy said.

Captain Dodgers stared at the box in his hand. So many memories were poured into it. So many good, but the worst ones seemed to rake over. This was all his fault, every last moment. Dwelling on tge past wouldn't change it though.

Dodgers nodded as he set the box on his night stand. "Thanks. We should probably head back to the bridge."

The walk back to the bridge was probably the most difficult thing Dodgers had ever done in his life. Even after getting sick, his stomach was still not happy with him. It only got worse when the broken door was in sight. Captain Dodgers just wished he could hide his red face as he stepped back onto the bridge. Everyone was looking right at him. There were a couple of clusters of people snickering, no doubt enjoying the previous display of public humiliation. There were some who didn't seem to care in the least. A couple of the female members gave shot a few winks his way, much to his embarrassment. But most of the looks he got were of the sympathetic nature. Captain Star Johnson seemed to be in the class of people who didn't care, as he approached him as if the earlier blunder was nothing out of the ordinary.

He was the first to speak. "Captain Dodgers-"

Danny decided to interrupt him before he could be chastised, "I know, I know, I'm going to have to pay for that out of my own paycheck. That and I'm probably going to get thrown off the case because I'm too close to it."

"That's not what I was going to say." Johnson retorted. Dodgers raised an eyebrow and Star continued. "That's something from days of past. We've found that when a case becomes personal, things tend to get done much more effectively. It also makes sure you aren't doing anything reckless behind out backs as you inevitably try to work on the case without getting caught. But before we do anything, we're going to need you to tell us everything about this Brandon fellow. And yes, that monitor is coming out of your paycheck."

Dodgers' stomach twisted with all eyes in him. "What do you need to know?"

A voice called out from amungst the crowd, "Was he the man in the relationship, or did he ever let you give it a try?"

Another voice joined him, "No wonder you can't get women, you never knew how to be a man."

Captain Dodgers took in a deep breath and flashed a cocky grin, "Funny. Never heard that before. Oh wait, I have, every day in high school. If you're going to make jokes like that, at least tell one that isn't three hundred and fifty years old."

There was a collective, "OOOoooo." from the crowd.

"Now, if we can move along from my love life and get back to business, what do you need to know so we can find our missing princess?" Dodgers asked.

"When was the last time you saw Brandon, and what happened that day?" Captain Star Johnson asked.

Danny Dodgers felt his chest tighten up. They had to start with the most painful thing, didn't they. He'd rather have that video be shown to his fullest than think back to that day.

"The day I got myself frozen, I remember that we got into a fight. It had to have been the fourth one that week." Dodgers melancholy rubbed his back, digging up that day. "Final exams were coming up and both of us had been stressed for the past few weeks. It didn't help that Brandon's job started demanding him work more hours because his other coworker in that position just had a baby and left on maternity leave. We fought over something stupid and I left our dorm. That was the last time I had seen him. I tried getting back into the dorm, but my keys, wallet, phone, they got left in the dorm. I guess he went out looking for me when I didn't come back, but after that, everything turns into a blur and I got thawed out by Dr. I.Q."

Captain Star Johnson slowly nodded. "I see, so could there be a chance that Brandon still harbors resentment over that fight?"

Danny shook his head, "I highly doubt it. It was something about me forgetting to pick up rice or something for the dinner we were going to make that night. I don't think he would join the Martians and kidnap a princess over that. No, there's something going on with him. He looked like he didn't even know who I was."

I.Q. approached them, holding a tablet, his eyes furrowed as he read his discovery. "I ran tests on the bio metrics scanners on the data during the invasion. It seems as though your friend has been implanted with Martian cybernetics. After close inspection I've discovered a signal that may be controlling your friend."

"Can you trace the signal?" Dodgers asked, sounding hopeful.

His heart pounded. If there was any hope on getting his Brandon back this may be it. Even if I.Q. couldn't at the moment, the brilliant scientist would figure it out, one way or another, it would be just a matter of time.


	7. Chapter 7

Dr. I.Q. rapidly tapped on his tablet. Everyone in the Protectorate eagerly awaited the answer. This could be the key to finding the answers they desperately needed. After several beeps and bleeps the doctor grinned. Dodgers could feel a smile work it's way across his face as well.

"We're in luck. I've managed to trace the signal so we can locate the princess." The Doctor said with a wide smile.

Just like that, the smile on Dodger's face faltered. "But shouldn't we go back to the source of the signal? We need to stop whoever or whatever is controlling Brandon."

Captain Star Johnson sighed. "I'm sorry Dodgers, but right now the princess is our highest priority, not getting your boyfriend back. If you can't follow orders, you will be thrown off the case and placed in detainment until things calm back down."

"But you said that taking me off the case would make things worse." Dodgers argued.

No way in hell was he getting thrown of this case. For the past five years he thought everyone from his previous life had long since died. Now that he knew that the love of his life was still alive, Danny wasn't going to rest until he had his Brandon by his side again. No one was going to get in his way, not Commander X2, not Captain Star Johnson, no one.

The other captain rolled his eyes and scoffed. "I only said that to get you to give us the information we needed. Now, be a good boy and go down to the evaporator. We need to get people on board to help repair the communicator screen you broke. We are not about to go off into deep space without it. Oh, and you'll need to figure out a new password, stat."

"But we need to be going now. Brandon is already hours ahead of us." Captain Dodgers rebutted.

"Be that as it may, I'm not the one who shot his monitor because of a video." Johnson countered.

The temperature in the room felt like it had gone up in temperature as Danny's face grew a dark shade of pink. It took a lot of effort no to clench his fists. He wasn't about to let Star know that that got to him, no way, no how.

"Fine." He growled. "I'll go, but you guys better figure out how we're going to catch up with them."

* * *

While the repairs were being done, Captain Dodgers was tasked with looking over the flash drive to see if it contained any evidence. He wasn't sure if it was because it was meant to keep him busy or that he wouldn't freak out if someone else discovered another inappropriate video on the flash drive. Regardless of the reasoning, it had taken a few hours but they were able to come up with a flash drive reader compatible with the futuristic technology. Dodgers sat off to the side on his bridge at a rarely used work station. He plugged the flash drive in and the computer took a brief second to look it over. Quick as a flash a list of files popped up. Dodgers cautiously clicked on the first file, hoping that nothing embarrassing would pop up. In fact, he was met with quite the opposite.

An all too familiar location popped up. Although the decorations were different, there wasn't a doubt that this was his childhood home. The camera panned over the Christmas decorations in the living room until it settled onto a sophomore Danny, Tommy, his six year old younger brother sat on Danny's lap, his freshmen sister, Tammy, and Brandon. All three of them were dressed in pajamas. Dodgers remembered that year. Brandon's parents won a cruise and couldn't take Brandon with. Danny had told his parents that Brandon was going to be alone that year, and they were not going to put up with that. For that year, Brandon would be their honorary kid. All four of them looked groggy as could be, but Danny and Brandon both sported matching smiles. The two of them had just started dating and it was amazing getting to spend Christmas together. His sister on the other hand, scowled, not wanting to be filmed. Some Christmas music was playing in the background when his father's voice nearly made the present Dodgers jump.

"Come on Tammy, where's your Christmas spirit?" His father asked, chuckling.

The young Danny messed with his sister's ebony hair as he teased, "She's just grumpy that she can't see her boyfriend until later today. Isn't that right?"

"No." His sister growled as she tried fixing her hair. "I don't like being filmed."

Brandon stifled a yawn but still maintained his smile. "When you guys said you got up early on Christmas, you weren't kidding."

Captain Dodgers sighed. Well, he had seen all that he needed to in this video, maybe there was something else on the flash drive that would give them a clue about the missing princess. Captain Dodgers continued to click through all the files. All of them had him in them, every picture, ever video, everything was related to him some how. There were pictures of Christmases past, videos of them hiking in the woods near their childhood houses and every other major event in their lives. Why was all of this on the flash drive? None of it made any sense. But the more he watched, the more he looked at years that had long since gone by, the more feelings of homesickness popped up. Captain Dodgers felt the pang work its way through him as a video of him and his family playing football during Thanks Giving when he felt a presence behind him.

"Captain Dodgers." Percy said, getting his attention. "We've found them."


	8. Chapter 8

Captain Dodgers sighed. Well, he had seen all that he needed to in this video, maybe there was something else on the flash drive that would give them a clue about the missing princess. Captain Dodgers continued to click through all the files. All of them had him in them, every picture, ever video, everything was related to him some how. There were pictures of Christmases past, videos of them hiking in the woods near their childhood houses and every other major event in their lives. Why was all of this on the flash drive? None of it made any sense. But the more he watched, the more he looked at years that had long since gone by, the more feelings of homesickness popped up. Captain Dodgers felt the pang work its way through him as a video of him and his family playing football during Thanks Giving when he felt a presence behind him.

"Captain Dodgers." Percy said, getting his attention. "We've found them."

Captain Dodgers looked up from his screen. His heart pounded and he could feel his hands start to get sweaty. It wouldn't be too much longer and he would see Brandon again.

"Where are they?" The Captain asked, trying to hide the mix of emotions.

Percy responded quickly. "We've traced the signal to Omicron Delta Six Sir. We believe him to be hiding in a base."

The Captain nodded as he pulled up information on the planet. It was a neutral planet, but upon closer inspection, half of the planets were either neutral or claimed in the name of the Martian Empire. The Captain started at the screen, trying to figure out how to slip onto the planet with out raising any red flags.

"Right, well with all of these Martian planets, we can't go charging in. What's the nearest closest neutral planet?" The Captain asked.

This time Captain Star Johnson put in his input. "Galagis Captain Dodgers. It's a planetary port for this sector of the galaxy."

Dodgers grinned. "Perfect. I propose we send a small team down to the planet undercover. We'll pretend to be workers in need for a job and find ourselves a ship that can take us to Omicron Delta Six. We can slip onto the planet without raising the attention of any of the nearby Martian planets. We drop in, grab the princess and Brandon, and then we get back on the transit ship and take the princess home."

Captain Johnson nodded. "That seems pretty sound, but we should try renting the ship. It will make it easier to get the princess and Brandon onto the ship without raising suspicion. Now we just need to figure out who all will go down."

* * *

404 sighed as he idly sat by. His fingers drummed on his desk as he waited the signal to go through countless back doors to get back to his commander. Waiting, endless waiting. Half of this mission had been nothing but waiting. Waiting to get to the ship, waiting for the right time to strike, waiting to get to this quaint planet, waiting for the damn signal to go through, waiting, waiting, waiting.

He had been programmed to do so much more than just kidnap a princess and wait. 404 knew that he should be invading planets, toppling governments, claiming every little dust bowl Podunk planet in the galaxy in the name of the great Martian Empire. 404 had been thrilled with the prospect of kidnapping a princess. Without the heir to the thrown, it would make it all too easy to get a foothold on that planet. They negotiations would be in the favor of the Martian Empire and soon that entire section of the solar system would be theirs. But why on the red planet's name did he have to baby sit the princess after he grabbed her?

Finally the signal came through, all though it was staticy. But hey, that's what you get if you don't want the Galactic Protectorate tracing your signal. Commander X2 appeared on screen and 404 saluted him. The Commander nodded and 404 lowered his arm.

"I assume that you made it there safe?" The Commander asked.

404 curtly nodded. "Yes Commander. I made sure that we weren't followed and took the planed route. The Protectorate has no idea I'm in this sector of the galaxy. Even then they wouldn't dare charge in with so many Martian planets near by. And I've hidden the ship in an isolated cave."

Commander X2 seemed irked at the comment. He hoped that he hadn't said anything wrong.

"Hmm yes." The Martian seemed to be dwelling over something as he spoke. "But that Captain Dodgers is known to charge in and mess things up. Be vigilant. Soon the negotiations will occur and we need to make sure that the princess is in our hands until the papers are signed."

404 nodded. "Yes sir."

"Good. I will signal you when we are finished." X2 said right before ending the signal.

The young man sighed and leaned back in his chair. 404 rubbed at his sore legs. He couldn't understand it, he had barely done anything, and he was in top physical condition. Why did his body ache so much? Maybe he was still getting used to the cybernetic implants. But he had had them for months. Whatever the reason, 404 was going to have that looked at when he returned home.

Speaking of home, 404 missed that red planet. There was something special about that place. Maybe it was the beautiful architecture, the fact that he felt like he had a purpose, that he belonged, or maybe it was because it was the only thing he ever knew. Heck, he even missed the taste of the clay filled air. Although if there was one thing he missed the most it was the warmth of the planet. The surface might be as cold as the star ships, but down in the laboratory that he called home, it was nice and warm. It made his freezing hands and feet feel almost normal. Even though he wanted to claim as many planets in the name of his home world, nothing beat home.

404 stood up and stretched his sore body. He went back to his quarters. The set up was similar to how it was in the lab but condensed for space travel. The young man grabbed various plugs and started putting them into their matching outlets on his suit. 404 immediately felt more energized than he had before. He hissed in pain as he stuck a needle into a small tap on his suit, just opposite of his elbow. 404 still wasn't fond of the IV that gave him the nutrients his human side needed. It hurt as it pumped the necessary fluid into him. But eating would only mess up the cybernetic components inside him, or so he was told by the scientists in the lap. Be that as it may, it was a part of him, like the red planet was his home and 404 wouldn't have it any other way.


	9. Chapter 9

Dodgers felt ridiculous in his get up. Everything from the leather boots, tan pants, leather suspenders, maroon shirt and, brown coat somehow screamed space cowboy to him. At least he was able to hide the holster to his blaster under the jacket. Regardless of his opinion on the outfit, they still changed into the strange attire. They boarded a small shuttle and went down to the surface of the planet. It was Captain Dodgers, Percy, Captain Johnson, and a few other cadets from Johnson's crew. It didn't take long for the ship to touch down. When the doors opened, he was glad to be wearing such strange clothes, as he really did blend in. Who knew?

They climbed out of the ship and their shuttle took off back for the main ship. The less trace they had of their presence in this sector of the galaxy the better. And after talking about the plan they found a few kinks in it. If they could track 404's signal, then the Martian Empire could too. They would be able to see where the princess was. But if they took two ships to Omicron Delta Six and took the princess back to Captain Star Johnson's ship and take Brandon back to Captain Dodger's ship, the princess could go back to her home planet without suspicion.

Finding a bunch of ships that were headed in the direction of Omicron Delta Six was easy, being able to commandeer two on the other hand proved to be a difficult task. Fortunately they were able to snag a ship that would keep everything hush hush, for the right price of course. After reworking the plan again, they agreed on taking the princess back to Captain Dodgers' ship with Brandon. Once Brandon was secure and things were settled, the princess would be taken to Captain Star Johnson's ship via transporter and she would be sent home. Once they had paid off the transit ship, the crew boarded and took the long trip to Omicron Delta Six.

Dodgers sighed when he heard that the rust bucket that they called a ship could take two hours to get to Omicron Delta Six. This was going to be a long trip. The crew sat idly by in a small seating area as the ship shook at every little thing. This was going to be a nightmare, and one that he was going to have to do again in just a little bit. With that realization, Dodgers ran his hands through his hair and buried his face in his hands.

"Captain Dodgers?" One of the cadets asked.

The young captain looked up in acknowledgement. "Mmph."

The cadet hesitated before asking, "I know you might not want this asked, and you don't have to answer but-"

"I get it, just ask." Danny replied, trying to take the cadet's nerves away.

"You left the twenty first century in 2015 right?" The cadet asked.

Dodgers nodded. "Yeah, I just finished college. Why?"

"Well when those guys were giving you a hard time earlier, you said it was something you had heard a whole bunch. And I thought that people in that time period didn't care about things like that. I mean you could have gotten legally married." The cadet said.

Captain Dodgers replied. "Well, legally we couldn't have gotten married in our state until two weeks before I got frozen. If we wanted to get married we would have had to drive three states away. Even then it wouldn't be recognized as an official marriage unless we were in a handful of states. And the attitude of how people felt about us dating varied upon where we went. We grew up in a very conservative religious town. It was so conservative that health class was basically, you even so much think about having sex with someone, you're going to hell. And that was directed at straight couples, let alone a gay couple. No, we were guaranteed to go to hell for just existing."

Percy's eyes grew wide. "Are you serious?"

Dodgers nodded. "Oh, yeah. If I'm being honest, coming out had to be the single most terrifying thing I've ever done. Even admitting to myself that I liked guys was extremely difficult. I spent so long trying to convince myself that I didn't like guys, that there wasn't something wrong with me, that I was just confused and when I found the right girl that these feelings would go away. And once I accepted that, I was so terrified that my parents would kick me out of the house and disown me when I told them that I liked Brandon." Dodgers paused and took a breath. "They didn't. Brandon on the other hand, his relationship with his parents was never the same again. And I was never allowed back over there because 'I turned their son gay'. And then word spread and got to the school. That was a fun three years of my life that I'm never going to get back." Danny said bitterly.

Another cadet joined in on the conversation, "What happened?"

Danny answered as the ship lurched. "We came out at a high school party. People got video of it and it went viral in our school. We left the party and found out our houses had been egged and tp-ed. That was fun to clean up. But was more fun was trying to scrub the graffiti off of our lockers before school started. And then the name calling became an every day occurrence. We had friends that helped us through it, but a couple of our friends didn't want anything to do with us any more- as if we could infect them with such sin." He shook his head. "Trust me, jokes like that aren't anything that I had to go through in high school. The biggest part of it is not letting them see that they managed to get to you. Eventually they see that they can't get to you and they slowly start to stop."

* * *

Percy stared at the signal on their tablet as he directed the pilot where to land. They wanted to be sure to have the element of surprise so they had to wait until that side of the ship was well within the night. The ship shook as the landing gear touched down. Captain Dodgers was happy when they were able to get off of the shaking rust bucket. Crickets chirped as the heavy metal doors closed.

Captain Star Johnson gathered the crew around and looked at Captain Dodgers as we spoke. "Our highest priority is getting the princess back safe. We can deal with Brandon later. Be sure to make sure you're blasters are on stun, we don't need any accidental injuries. It's going to be a messy enough situation as is."

The crew nodded and they snuck off into the night. With every step, the tension grew between the crew members. This had to be the most stressful mission Dodgers had ever been on. Captain Dodger's heart pounded so loudly, he thought that Brandon would be able to hear him coming a mile away.


	10. Chapter 10

404 snapped awake as the alarms went off. Red lights flashed and the siren wailed indicating something wasn't as it should be. 404 yanked the IV and plugs off of him and took off for the bridge. He placed his hand up to his ear and tried signaling Commander X2. With how long it took to get through back to base, he needed to get patched in as soon as possible. Even if the alarms were going off for no reason, it would be better to call back to the Commander with no reason, than to find out he was being attacked and not get a hold of his Commander in time.

The cyborg's blue eyes scanned his monitors seeing what was sounding the alarms. Someone was nearing the cave. According to his sensors, six people were approaching the ship. The scanners quickly scanned the faces of the intruders. He needed to know who he was going up against. 404 recognized two of them from when he kidnapped the princess. They looked like they were in control of the situation, giving each other silent hand signals. Well, 404 still had the advantage. This was his ship after all. With his programming, he knew it like the back of his hand. 404 turned off the lights and the cybernetics in his system kicked in and gave him night vision. That was one of the perks that made the painful IV worth it.

404 almost jumped out of his skin when he heard the voice of his commander in his ear. "What is it 404?"

"My position is compromised. There are got six people outside of the ship. Two of them are the guys from that Protectorate ship that I got the princess from." 404 quickly replied.

"That would be Dodgers." Commander X2 sounded irritated.

"I don't know how they did it sir. I was sure to be careful." 404 added.

404 could hear voices in the background before his commander spoke again. "We've been monitoring your vitals and making sure your suit is properly functioning. They probably traced it. We need to cut it off if we don't want them to trace the signal back to the lab. You're going to be on your own until we can get a secure signal."

404 nodded his head, "Right sir. I can handle it."

With that, the signal from his commander went dead. 404 readied his arm blaster and waited for the intruders to make the first move. As he got into position, the door to his ship was opened by a controlled blast. The ship shook and bits of door flew his way. What a strange twist of fate and irony. It almost made 404 chuckle to himself - almost.

The young ebony haired captain from earlier stormed onto his ship dressed in a strange get up. In fact the rest of the group were dressed similarly. They all looked like space cowboys. Strange, but it wasn't going to matter. He raised his arm blaster at the captain and took aim. 404 blasted at the captain. The moment he fired though, the captain slipped on a piece of the door that he couldn't see in the dark. The blast wound up hitting the cave wall behind Dodgers. Drat. Well, there went his hiding spot. Before he could move, he was blinded by the lights on his ship turning on. What the hell? 404's whole body froze as he was knocked back into the wall. His body gave out from under him and he slid the the ground.

Captain Dodgers held up his blaster, "E.M.P. blaster. Figured it would take out your cybernetics and freeze you up, so we can question you."

404 stared holes at Captain Dodgers as he waltzed over to him. There was something about the look in Dodgers' eye that was off putting to 404. He seemed angry, saddened, filled with regret, and had a sense hopefulness all at once. What was up with this guy? Whatever was up with him, his commander was right, there was something reckless about this man.

"Brandon, I'm going to ask this once, where is the princess?" The Protectorate captain asked.

Brandon, there that name was again. Why did the captain keep insisting on calling him that? It really didn't matter to 404 right now. He had more important things on his mind, like keeping the princess away from him. Besides if he really wanted to know, he was sure Commander X2 could tell him when he was debriefed.

404 scoffed, "I'm not telling you anything Dodgers."

There was a hint of sadness in the Captain's eyes. The man sighed, nodded and turned to the man that was on the other ship with him.

"Can you hack into the computer base and figure out where the princess is being held?" Dodgers asked.

One of the other Protectorate boys replied. "I found her while you were talking to your boyfriend."

Dodgers shot the young man a look but the man continued to speak. "She's towards the back. Let's get them back on the transit ship."

* * *

Captain Dodgers was relieved when they found the princess unharmed. She had been placed in suspended animation in one of the back rooms. The princess gave everyone quite the scare when she began to freak out upon revival. To be fair, when she went under she was in Brandon's custody and she was awoken by people dressed like space cowboys. But when she saw Captain Dodgers and Percy, the princess regained her composure.

They got the princess aboard the ship and made sure that Brandon was secure and his cybernetics were offline before loading him onto the ship. It was a quite ride - well as quiet as that rust bucket got - back to Captain Dodgers' ship. Once on board, the ship owners were paid a decent tip for compliance with the Galactic Protectorate and it went off back towards Galagis. The princess was escorted down the the evaporator and taken aboard Captain Star Johnson's ship and they took Brandon down to the brig. All in all the plan went off without a hitch, but it somewhat felt like a hollow victory for Danny seeing as Brandon treated him like a total stranger.

Dodgers thought for sure that he would have his Brandon back when they shot him with the E.M.P. blast. He hoped that I.Q. could figure out why it didn't work. Maybe the signal was also coming from the ship he was on. Perhaps when if they isolated Brandon from the signal long enough he would go back to normal, Captain Dodgers could only hope.


	11. Chapter 11

**This chapter was delayed because I had to deliver several puppies. Sorry about the wait.**

Seeing Brandon in that cell made Captain Dodgers' stomach twist and churn. Through the glass wall that separated them, Brandon's eyes stared at Dodgers as though he was a predator looking at it's prey. Their eyes just locked onto each other, not uttering a single word.

There was no hint of the Brandon that Danny knew and loved with every fiber of his being. This wasn't his Brandon. The Brandon in front of him looked sleep deprived and pale like paper. He constantly moved his feet ever so slightly, as if standing completely still was painful. What did they do to his Brandon?

Captain Dodgers heard Percy come up behind him, his voice soft and quiet, "Sir, Dr. I.Q. would like to speak with you."

Danny sighed, nodded, and left Brandon alone. He wasn't going to get anywhere with the two of them staring at each other all day. The captain walked back towards his bridge. He sat down in his chair and had Percy call up Dr. I.Q. A second passed and the scientist appeared on the screen. The doctor looked up from his research that he was thoroughly engrossed in.

"I've just finished looking through the results of Brandon's blood work. We didn't find any trace of any serums in his system. There's nothing unusual in his blood at all. It has to either be psychological, technological, or a combination of the two that is causing Brandon's... behavior." The Doctor informed him.

Dodgers was quiet as he though over what the Doctor said. He knew the doctor was checking for things that shouldn't be there, but Dodgers wondered if he checked for things that should be there that weren't.

"What's up with that look Dodgers?" Doctor I.Q. asked quizzically.

The captain looked up at the screen in response. "Do me a favor, check his blood again for me?"

"I've checked it three times Dodgers." The doctor sounded irritated at the request.

"I want to to check something specific, please." Dodgers rebutted.

Doctor I.Q. raised a quizzical eyebrow, "And what would that be?"

"His iron levels." He replied.

With a hesitant look, the scientist went to work typing at his computer. Dodgers could hear the mouse click and tapping of fingers against the desk. Doctor I.Q. whistled a tune as the computer ran its task. He furrowed his eyebrows and seemed to run the test again. No one couldn't say that the doctor wasn't thorough. He looked up from his computer screen and gave Captain Dodgers a baffled look.

"It's extremely low, almost half way below where it should be." The doctor said staring at the data in front of him.

Captain Dodgers pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. No wonder why Brandon looked the way he did. He began to wonder how long they had had him for if his iron levels were that low? It made him feel sick to his stomach and there was a pang in his heart.

"How did you know to have me check his iron?" Doctor I.Q. asked.

"Brandon's anemic." Dodger's replied. "And if his iron is as low as you say it is, it means that he hasn't been taking iron supplements in a long while. That means that the Martians have had him for a long time. Who knows what they did to him in that time?"

Doctor I.Q. nodded in acknowledgement, "I know this is hard on you Dodgers, but once you get him back here on earth, we can run more thorough tests on Brandon and hopefully we can figure out how to get him back. In the mean time, I'll be sure to get iron supplements sent up to you to give to Brandon."

Dodgers wearily smiled, "Thanks Doc. It means a lot."

* * *

Captain Dodgers stood across from Brandon He opened the pulled open a small drawer in the wall and set a pill and a glass of water in the tray. He closed it up and pushed the tray towards Brandon. The dirty blond eyed the pill suspiciously like it was posion.

"What's that?" Brandon coldly asked.

"That is an iron supplement that you need to take." Danny replied.

Brandon glanced back between the pill and Dodgers. "I don't need it. I need my I.V.s. They're what keep me going, that and my charging station. Without that, I'll be like how I was when you blasted me with that E.M.P. blast, paralyzed. And if I know the Galactic Protectorate's regulations on their prisoners, it would be too cruel to let me go without it. "

Danny sighed. "Okay, that's fine. We will get you your charging stations and I.V.s, but if you'll just humor me for a moment. Are you getting headaches a lot?"

"Yes." Brandon replied.

Dodgers nodded his head towards Brandon,"You're legs are probably either hurting you a lot or feel somewhat tingly like they're about to fall asleep, right?"

"Sometimes." Brandon offhandedly retorted.

"And I know for a fact that your hands are ice cold, or feel cold, don't they?"

"Maybe."

"This might sound strange, but you aren't craving mineraly things like chalk, are you?"

"What if I do?"

"If you could look in a mirror, you would see that a ghost would have more of a completion than you and that your eyes look like you got bunched in the nose by a boxer. You have the darkest circles under your eyes that I've ever seen on anybody."

"So, what does that have to do with anything?"

"It means that you're anemic, Brandon. That means that you have low iron. And I'm guessing that those I.V.s that you've been getting, are for regular people, not for anemics. You've been lacking iron for as long as the Martians have had you." Danny spoke calmly.

Brandon's face grew a darker shade of red, although given how pale he was, he looked almost normal. "Why do you keep insisting on calling me Brandon?"

Hearing that felt like a stab to the heart. It stunned Danny so much, he stood there in shock as Brandon glared at him.

"B-because that's you're name." Captain Dodgers answered.

Brandon glared at him and put emphasis on every word, "I. Am. 404. Not. Brandon. Do you understand me, Dodgers?"

If before was a stab to the heart, that was twisting the knife. It hurt so much because in a way, he was right. This really wasn't his Brandon. He really was 404, but by God was he going to get his Brandon back, one way or another.

Dodgers leaned up against the glass, his voice wasn't as steady as he wanted it to be, "As of right now, you're right. You aren't Brandon. But you were at some point, and I'm just hoping that one day that I can get him back."

Brandon leaned up against the glass and gave Danny a wicked grin, "I highly doubt that."


	12. Chapter 12

404 tapped his fingers on his crossed arms as he waited for Captain Dodgers to return. He said he would get back to him after checking up on a few things. At least the Protectorate was kind enough to get his set up from his ship so he could charge his cybernetics and get his I.V.s. Dodgers also said they would look into him being able to actually eat food. 404 doubted that he would, after all, why would the Martians lie to him?

But soon enough, the ebony haired captain returned. Surprise, surprise, that's all the captain seemed to be doing as of late, spending every bit of free time he had down here with him. Didn't he have a ship he needed to run, or was that just an honorary title that the Protectorate gave out? At least in the Martian Empire, titles were earned through rigors battles and acts proving one's worth. 404 would be lucky if he would become honored with the title of Corporal after taking over a planet on his own.

In Dodgers' hand, he held a tablet. The cyborg glared at the Protectorate Captain as he placed the device in the drawer. 404 eyed the device as he picked it up. He looked at Dodgers, the and looked back at the tablet. Why would the Dodgers give him this?"

"What is this?" 404 asked, eyeing the device.

"A tablet." Dodgers replied.

It took a lot of effort not to roll his eyes, but his voice still displayed his sarcasm. "Oh, really? I meant what's up with it? Why give it to me? Is it so I don't have to look at your annoying face all day?"

404 could see that that last comment seemed to hurt the Captain. He didn't care though. Captains should be strong, after all, they lead the lives of countless men. Why should he care if the feelings of one Protectorate's Captains got hurt by a few words? Why should he care about someone in the Protectorate in the first place?

"There are videos on it. They came from a flash drive that Commander X2 said that you had on you when they found you." Dodgers explained.

404 scoffed. "So it is to distract me from your annoying face then?" He then grew a cocky grin, "Well if it isn't my lucky day then. Thank you very much captain."

With the press of the button, a display of video names popped up. 404 eyed them quizzically. Most of them had Dodgers' name in them. Perhaps they were videos that would 404 Dodgers' weaknesses. But then why would Dodgers let him see them then? Either way, it was better than staring out at the somewhat depressed captain for hours on end.

He hit the first video. After all, why not start at the beginning and work his way down? It seemed the most logical approach. The screen went black and a little dot ran in a circle as the video loaded. A second later, the video started playing. 404 was stunned to see himself on the tablet. He and Dodgers were sitting on a couch beside each other. 404's arm was around Dodgers and the two of them had content smiles on their faces. In the background there were sounds of people talking and poor quality music playing in the background. His arm was outstretched, as though he was recording the video.

"Think you're gonna be able to stay up?" He teased.

Dodgers snorted, "We have like one minute left, of - "

Dodgers eyes closed and he started mock snoring. The ebony haired main couldn't hide the smile on his face and the past 404 started smiling as well.

"Oh, stop it you." 404 teased.

Dodgers laughed. And the two started bumping each other. Their fun was stopped when their attention was turned towards a screen where the poor quality music was coming from. There was a small ball of light slowly falling down a pole while a timer started counting down.

404 raised an eyebrow as he watched the video. What a strange reason to be recording. There were so many questions that this raised, like why did he record this in the first place? Why did seeing this leave an empty pang in his chest?

"10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3" Everyone in the room seemed to be counting down all at once in time with the countdown.

The camera turned back towards them. "2-1! Happy New Year!"

The two of them shared a kiss and a blissful look. His younger self grew a cocky grin and took a small white tube with a roll of colorful paper. He blew into it and it unrolled with an annoying squeak right into Dodgers' cheek. The ebony haired grabbed another similar contraption and blew it back at him. The two had a battle of the weird paper toys for a few seconds before a girl with black hair came up behind them and snatched the things out of their mouths.

"Danny will you stop it?" The woman chidded.

"Happy new year to you, killjoy." His younger self joked.

She sneered at him, a feint smile on her lips, "God you two are annoying."

"I love you too Tammy." Dodgers replied as he shooed the woman away.

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. That was where the video stopped.

404 looked up from the tablet. There was that longing look of sadness on Dodgers' face again. God, did it annoy him. But the pang came back. He tried clearing his head. No. No way would he let his emotions get the better if him. He was a Martian soldier after all. He needed to make his commander proud. It was then that everything clicked for 404, and he got a horrible, awful idea; an idea that would break Captain Dodgers for good.

He looked up at Captain Dodgers with big sad eyes and said, "Danny?"


	13. Chapter 13

Hearing Brandon say his name made his heart stop for a moment. There was a lump in the back of his throat. Had it really worked? Is that all it took to get his Brandon back? Danny hoped so, but he had a feeling that it wasn't quite so. It was too fast, unless this all was technological control. But, hey maybe Dodgers would be lucky for once. After his recent string of bad luck, he was due for something good.

"Brandon? Is that, do you, do you remember anything?" Danny asked.

Brandon had a look of regret on his face as he bit his lip. "I don't remember a whole lot Danny. Everything is still pretty fuzzy. I don't know what it was, but watching that, it was like... I don't know. Before I watched that video, it was like I was underwater. Everything... nothing felt real, like I was watching something... it's hard to describe... but watching that, it was like snapping me out of some sort of trance. Now, I'm just sort of stuck in limbo, you know. It's.. it'll probably take me a while tho remember before... well, you know..."

Poor Brandon. He had been through quite a bit. Now that he wasn't under the Martians' control anymore, he was probably more scared and confused than ever. But at least he was there to help Brandon, to get him through this.

Danny nodded. "Yeah. We thought that there might be some sort of technological hold on you. Maybe it was able to break the signal. Who knows. Maybe watching those videos might help you remember who you are."

Brandon held a reluctant look. He bit his lip again and went to open his mouth. He closed it as quickly as it had opened.

"Danny?" Brandon asked.

"Yeah?" Dodgers replied.

Brandon's words were quiet, "Do you think you could stay here for a while and help me remember? Maybe talking to you might help with things. And, I know I don't remember much of anything, but I know that I want you here."

Dodgers smiled and his heart raced. This was certainly a step in the right in the right direction. Well, if he was going to be here for a while he might as well pull up a chair. It was going to be a long ride, but it would certainly be worth it. Besides, they had been through so much together already, so many good things, so many horrible, awful things. This was just going to be another hard time they would chalk up on their list together. Dodgers wouldn't have it any other way.

* * *

404 smiled. Dodgers had taken the bait quiet beautifully. Now, if only his commander could get a hold of him, he could initiate the next part of his plan. 404 nonchalantly rubbed at his ear, trying to send a signal to his commander. They weren't tracking his vitals, but they should be able to get his signal sooner or later.

He and Dodgers shared a look as the captain pulled up a chair beside the glass. 404 tried not to smirk as he was going to send a signal to his commander right under Dodgers' nose while he was right in front of him. Oh the poor love struck fool had no idea.

404 started tapping on his legs as the video played. If he was going to do this without alerting anyone the Martian Empire's form of Morse Code was the way to go. Once the signal had gone though, 404 started his message.

 **" _This is 404. Requesting basic information on Dodgers and me from my memories. I'm trying to convince him that your control over Brandon is slipping. 'Gaining back memories' will prove to him that Brandon is back. Once I lull him into a false sense of security, we can move forward in our plan. 404 out._ "**

404 listened to Dodgers drone on and on about that New Years. How could someone remember such trivial facts to such great detail? But it was necessary to keep up the facade if he wanted to win Dodgers' trust. Besides, once this mission was over with, he was going to have this useless information whipped from his memory banks. But he had nothing better to do in the mean time, so hearing about Tammy and her boyfriend nearly breaking up was the most productive thing 404 could do at the moment. As they had gotten to the fourth video on the list, he could hear the signal come through.

 ** _"Commander X2 to 404. Request granted. You met Dodgers when he moved into your neighborhood when you were twelve. He has a younger brother, Tommy, and sister named Tammy. You went to Western Heights Middle School and were in Mr. Greger's homeroom. Dodgers and you would get in trouble for reading comics in class as opposed to doing your work. The two of you got detention because you started laughing at a comic during silent reading. When you were thirteen you were diagnosed as anemic- our apologizes, I'm not sure how we missed that information - you forgot to take your pills often but Dodgers would remind you. Dodgers almost drowned as a kid when you went to a water park with friends._** ** _We could make good use out of that._** ** _The file says something about a wave pool pulling him down into the water. Apparently he was pretty shaken up after that. Let's see, what else, you first kissed each other when you stayed over one night at Dodgers' when you were fourteen. Your parents hating you dating Dodgers but you didn't care. You both went to the same college, you wanted to be a social studies teacher. That should be enough to get you by for now. Good luck with your plan. Commander X2 out."_**

Perfect, now all 404 needed to do was wait and plant these seeds of false security as he went. If things went the way he hoped, 404 would be home in no time at all.


	14. Chapter 14

Over the course of the following week, more and more of Brandon's memories started to come back. On one of those days, Dodgers remembered when he had come back with a new set of I.V.s for Brandon, and he sat there with a smile on his face. As he set the I.V.s in the drawer, he gave him a questioning look.

"What's up with that look?" He asked, hoping that Brandon was remembering more than a few names here and there.

Brandon couldn't contain his smile any more, even if he tried. "Just remembering something."

Dodgers' heart skipped a beat, "Oh, and what are you remembering?"

Brandon leaned against the glass, his bright blue eyes gazing longingly into his, "Our first kiss."

Captain Dodgers could feel his cheeks grow hot and he too tried to hide back a smile. "Oh yeah, what about it do you remember?"

The dirty blond still gazed into his eyes as he reminisced over years past, "Well, if I remember right I was fourteen and I stayed over at your house. I remember that your parents left us alone to go pick up dinner. They took your sister and brother but left us to watch the house. I remember we finally told each other how we felt about each other and that's when we first kissed."

Dodgers' smile grew and be nodded, "Yeah, that's right. I remember being really nervous telling you how I felt because you were my best friend and I didn't want to lose you."

"Well, you could never lose me Danny. I'll always be there for you." Brandon said.

The two shared a moment before Dodgers cleared his throat. "So I have some good news."

Brandon raised an eyebrow, "And that would be..."

"We're going to be back on Earth in a few hours. Doctor I.Q. is going to run a few tests to see if you can eat real food again. Also, they're going to keep you in an observation room similar to an apartment. I know it's not the same as being home, but it's a start and I can go in and actually visit you if you'd like." Dodgers informed his friend.

"Perfect." Brandon said.

* * *

This was just too perfect. 404 couldn't believe that Dodgers was taking the bait so easily. If he played hid cards right, he could be out in a month. He was going to have to request more access to old memories if his was going to work though. He would have to have Dodgers' complete and utter trust. He just needed to "remember" the right memories at just the right time.

Dodgers was right, soon enough they were on Earth. 404 was sure to cooperate fully with the Protectorate and play the role as a good boy. Upon arrival in his observation room, the doctor began to run a series of tests on him. The first information he was told was that he would indeed be able to actually eat. Although, the doctor did say that he would have to start at liquids and work his way up to solids as not to upset his stomach.

The next thing was that he could, and by could they meant that they wanted him to remove his suit and only put it on whenever he needed to charge his cybernetics. 404 changed out of his familiar suit and into the causal Earth clothes. He would have been lying if he said that not being in his suit made him feel naked and exposed. But it was needed to get Dodgers to feel like comfortable around him.

The last thing they had 404 do was take a polygraph test. They asked him questions like, did he still feel loyalty to the Martian Empire, did he feel hostility towards any one in the Protectorate, did he regret his actions while under Martian control, did he want to escape, and most importantly, if he was left along with Dodgers, would he do anything to hurt him. Even without his suit, it was still all too easy to pass. 404 had been trained to pass this without blinking an eye. This was just another thing for Dodgers to rely on to trust him.

But needless to say, there he was, in his new "home." And sure as day, Dodgers always seemed to be visiting him. There had been a couple of days where Dodgers had been gone on planetary patrol. As strange as it was to admit it, a part of him felt lonely and missed the annoying captain, but at least it would help with the act. After being gone for four days, the familiar ebony haired man came into the observation room with a bag in his hand, and a grin on his face.

"What's in the bag?" 404 asked, trying to sound genuine.

Dodgers sat down beside him on the couch and opened the bag. He pulled out a set of rectangular plastic rectangles. Each of them had pictures and boldly bright fonts on them. The captain slid them all out on the small coffee table in front of them.

"These are all movies that you used to enjoy. I figured that since you don't remember them, why not watch them again. See any that catch your eye?" Dodgers asked.

404's eyes scanned the strange packages. How peculiar? But yes, one did catch his eye. There was one rectangle with a man in black standing in a strange green rain. Upon closer inspection it looked like the rain was comprised of numbers. He pointed to it.

"What's that?" 404 asked.

"The Matrix. That was one of your favorites, although the squeals aren't quite as good." Dodgers said as he grabbed the case.

He walked over to the television and popped open the rectangle and placed a small disk into a slot beneath the television. As he walked back, Dodgers lowered the lights as scenes of movies bean to play by, trying to grab their attention. Dodgers sat down and rifled through the bag and pulled out several boxes, bottles of dark brown liquid, and plastic bags, each with their own bright colors.

"No movie night is complete without junk food." Dodgers grinned as he pulled open a bag. He moved the open end towards him and offered what was inside, "Chex-mix? You liked the cheddar kind the best."

404 hesitantly reached his hand into the bag and pulled out a handful of this Chex-mix stuff. He eyed it. In his hand was an assortment of things like: pretzel circles, orange triangles, a white log thing, and two colors of a woven square. One thing was for certain, it smelled like cheddar. Without hesitation, he plopped the handful into his mouth. Huh, his younger self was right, this stuff was quite good. While he was eyeing his snack, Dodgers picked up the remote to the television and pressed a button and the movie started playing.

As the movie played the two of them snacked on the salty food and chugged bottles of the sugar fizzy drinks. Once the snacks had been cast aside, Dodgers had scooted closer to him and leaned on him. He was clearly enjoying the movie. 404 hadn't seen such a look of wonder on anyone in his recent memory. Speaking of memories, 404 recalled one where they had had movie nights in the past. He did as his past self did and put his arm around Dodgers, pulling him in closer with a feint smile. Sweet queen of Mars, did this feel awkward. But if it helped Dodgers feel like his old Brandon was coming back, he would keep doing this until he escaped.


	15. Chapter 15

Danny was excited for today. He had the day off and he and Brandon were going to do a movie marathon and binge watch old television shows. It was something he had suggested earlier, and when Brandon heard he had they day off he said he wanted to do it. The only hitch was deciding what to watch. They couldn't quite stick to a decision, so Danny figured he'd pack a bunch of movies and television shows so they could take a break and swap out if they wanted. The young man also made sure they had plenty of snacks to get them through the day.

Dodgers scanned through his closet for an outfit to wear. It wasn't that often that he could wear civilian clothes. But he picked out a black long sleeve shirt and slipped into a pair of jeans that were almost tight enough to be considered skinny jeans. He pushed up the sleeves to above his elbows and sprayed on a bit of cologne.

Although it was such a shame that he woken up with a head ache and a massive allergy attack though. Nothing was going to ruin this day, so Danny took out the bottle of Tylenol and allergy pills and popped a couple of pills into his mouth. He stuck the bottles into his bag. He was going to need them later. After double checking to make sure that he had everything, he headed left his apartment and headed towards Brandon's room.

As he walked past Doctor I.Q. and said hello, he could feel the allergy pills kick in and started to feel drowsy. It was a shame that they weren't doing much for his allergies though. But seeing Brandon's smile made Danny forget all his ailments. He placed his hand on the scanner and walked into the apartment. After setting his bag down, Brandon gave him a worried look.

"What's up with you? You don't look good." Brand said.

Danny brushed it off, "Just allergies. They always act up this time of year. I took some allergy pills. They're making me drowsy now, but I'll get past it. So, any idea on what movie you want to start with?"

"If you say so..." Brandon said before delving deep in thought. "Uh, I was thinking that Trek Wars movie series. It sounded interesting."

Danny shook his head as he rummaged through his bag and pulled out two different cases, "Do you mean Star Trek or Star Wars?"

Brandon looked at the covers and asked, "Which one has the swords?"

"Star Wars." Danny answered as he pulled out the stack of movies.

Brandon nodded and pointed, "Yeah, that one."

Danny walked over to the television and placed the movie into the DVD player. As he made his way towards the couch a chill ran through him and caused him to shiver. He pushed down his sleeves, hoping for more warmth.

"You okay?" Brandon asked.

Dodgers tried to dismiss it, "It's just a little cold in here is all."

Brandon's head gestured towards his bed. "Go grab a blanket off the bed."

Danny decided to take Brandon on his offer and grabbed the comforter and tossed it onto Brandon. He gave him an annoyed smirk as he pulled the blanket off his head. He wrapped the blanket around him and held his arm out, allowing Danny to slip in. Brandon wrapped his arm around him, enveloping him in an oven of warmth. He rested his head on Brandon's shoulder as the movie started to play.

* * *

404 held the chilly Dodgers close to him. They managed to get through half of the movie before they busted out the snacks. Half a bag of the chex- mix was gone before Dodgers pushed the bag away from him. His eyes were still droopy and his face was looking paler by the second. But his cheeks were starting to get pretty pink. Now was the time to play another concerned boyfriend card.

"Hey, are you sure that you're okay?" 404 quietly asked.

Dodgers nodded his head and leaned up against him. "It's just..." He coughed, "...allergies."

404 raised a skeptical eyebrow, "Oh, and allergies make you cough?"

Dodgers slowly nodded, "Sometimes. Drainage makes me cough and will make my stomach hurt. Ugh, I don't know why my allergies are so bad. I took a couple of pills a while ago. It -"

Dodgers stopped talking and shut his mouth. He started taking long and deep breaths. The captain leaned away from him and stared down at the ground.

"Danny, you alright?" 404 asked again.

He just got a, "Mmph." in response.

404 tried to get his attention again. "Danny?"

With that, Dodgers leaped off the couch and headed in the direction of the bathroom. 404 could hear the lid being slammed open before hearing Dodgers get sick.

He sighed and stood up. At least with all of these boyfriend cards, trust would not be much of an issue. 404 had just made it to he door of the bathroom when the doctor and a Protectorate cadet ran into the observation room.

"What is wrong with Captain dodgers?" The cadet demanded.

404's gestured towards the bathroom. "He says its allergies acting up. I say he's sick."

"I can't be sick." Dodgers called out from the bathroom before another wave of nausea overtook him.

404 rolled his eyes and walked into the bathroom after Dodgers finished getting sick. He placed his hand on his forehead and nearly recoiled at the intensity of the heat.

"You are burning up. You're sick Danny." 404 said.

Danny let out a weak sigh of frustration. "I can't be sick. I have an important meeting with the King of Keltra Percius Delta tomorrow. It's pretty important."

"Can't it be rescheduled?" 404 asked.

Danny went to open his mouth but shut it and closed his eyes as he tried to get through another wave of nausea.

The cadet answered for Dodgers. "The planet is a week away, they'll be here tomorrow. There's no way they would reschedule now."

"Well can't someone else go to the meeting in his place?" 404 asked.

"They... I..." Dodgers tried to say, but he was too concerned with his churning stomach.

"Captain Dodgers and the King of Keltra Percius Delta have shared a few run ins with each other and he was the one who convinced the planet to join the Protectorate. He is their preferred Protectorate affiliate to associate with." The cadet said.

Doctor I.V. pointed out, "Perhaps he will meet with Mr. Peggen. Being Dodgers' number one cadet and being on those missions with him might make him a second choice for the King."

"Should I go ask Mr. Peggen?" The other cadet asked.

"No. I'll be-" Dodgers said as yet another wave of nausea caused him to get sick.

Doctor I.Q. turned towards the cadet and nodded. "Go ask Mr. Peggen and then see if the King will consider meeting with him. If anything else we can ask Captain Star Johnson."

Dodgers let out a frustrated groan. He flushed to toilet and stood up, his body still shaking slightly. 404 poured a little bit of mouth wash into a plastic cup and handed it to Dodgers.

"Thanks." Dodgers' voice was raspy from all the throwing up.

He poured the liquid in his mouth and swished it around, trying to get the fowl taste out of his mouth. Dodgers spit out the mouthwash into the sink. 404 walked up behind Dodgers and gave him a hug.

"Go lay down in my bed. You'll feel better after getting some sleep." 404 suggested.

Dodgers leaned into the hug, a small smile resting on his face. His eyes were just as droopy as ever. Dodgers' head started bobbing forward.

"I'll lay down with you." 404 offered.

If 404 knew anything about Dodgers, he was the most stubborn person in all of existence. Perhaps that would make him change his mind.

"That sounds like a good idea." Dodgers agreed.

"Come on, I'll go grab the blanket." 404 said as he kissed Dodgers' forehead.


	16. Chapter 16

It had been far too long of a day for Danny. Instead of spending it gorging on junk food, getting the pizza he wanted to order, and binge watching things with Brandon, he spent half of the day asleep or hunched over the toilet. It got annoying after a while because he could only get a half hours worth of rest before he was rushing back to the bathroom for the uptienth time. At least Brandon was there with him.

Brandon would offer him sips of water and some of the crackers after getting sick so the next time he wouldn't just dry heave. There was nothing worse in the world than dry heaving. Brandon would lay in bed with him and run his fingers through his hair to help him fall back asleep after catapulting out of bed. And he was a nice warm body that helped keep the chill away.

Once his stomach had decided that he had had enough punishment, they decided to resume watching the movie. Brandon sat at one end of the couch and Dodgers laid across the couch with his head in Brandon's lap. Brandon lightly ran his fingers through his hair and lulled him into a relaxed state. Even though today didn't turn out how he wanted it to, this wasn't half bad. Eventually the two of them fell asleep on the couch.

Dodgers woke up to the movie menu playing on repeat. He rubbed his eyes and sat up, his head still feeling slightly dizzy and congested. Brandon was conked out, his head tilted back at an angle that had to hurt. He was snoring loudly. Dodgers nudged Brandon awake and he shot up in a dazed state.

"Huh! What!" Brandon shouted.

Danny lightly nudged him again. "Come on, let's go to bed. Your neck will thank me later."

Brandon gave him a grumpy look and took a long angry breath. "What?"

The captain shook his head and grinned. "Let's go to bed."

The groggy dirty blond stared at him for another minute. "Kay."

With a nod from Brandon, the two of them got up from the couch and passed out on the bed. Dodgers smiled as Brandon pulled him close.

* * *

Three weeks had passed since Brandon was taken to the observation room. Things were going incredibly well. Most of Brandon's basic memories had come back. But ever since they had found Brandon, there had been a nagging feeling constantly attacking Dodgers. He was going to need to talk to Brandon about their fight.

Over the course of the three weeks, Dodgers constantly thought about the right time to talk about it. A part of him hoped that he would never have to mention it, but there was a chance that he would remember. Besides, Dodgers knew that this feeling wouldn't go away unless he got this off of his chest.

Danny had to mentally pump himself up for this. He had a feeling that this was going to be one of the hardest things he would have to do. With every step that lead him closer to Brandon, the more his stomach twisted. He placed a sweaty hand against the scanner and the door opened with a beep.

Brandon was sitting on the couch reading one of the books he had brought over. He looked up with a big grin and jumped up, leaving the book on the couch. Danny walked into Brandon's room and was greeted with a tight hug.

"Hey you. How was work?" Brandon asked, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

Danny weakly smiled. "It was fine, but I spent a lot of the day thinking."

Brandon gave him a concerned look, "What were you thinking about?"

"The day I got frozen." Dodgers answered.

"Oh?" Brandon said with a raised eyebrow. "Come on, we'll got sit down and talk about it."

The two of them waked over to the couch. Brandon set the book down on the coffee table. Danny rung his hands as he thought about how to start. His heart pounded as his nerves started to wind tight.

"The day I got frozen, we got into a fight." Danny admitted. "It got pretty heated and I wound up storming out. There's not a day that goes by that I don't regret it. Its just..." Dodgers took a deep breath. "I didn't leave just because I was mad, but because I was scared."

"Why were you scared? Did you think that I was going to hurt you or something?" Brandon's voice sounded hurt.

Dodgers shook his head quickly. "No, no. It's just... we had been fighting a lot lately over the stupidest of things. We were getting made at each other over things that we'd never gotten mad about before." Danny's voice began to crack "I was scared that we were falling out of love. I was so scared because I was planning on proposing and terrified that you saying yes wasn't going to be the guaranteed possibility it had once been. I didn't want to loose you, but it just resulted in us ending up here. And I am so sorry for that."

Brandon pulled him in for a tight hug. Danny squeezed him as tightly as he could, as if he would disappear if he let go.

Danny could hear Brandon's voice in hie ear."I don't think that I could ever stop loving you, and don't you forget it."

Hearing that, made a wave of emotions hit Dodgers all at once. There were so many fears that had just been destroyed and so much happiness just overwhelmed him. He broke down and started sobbing.


	17. Chapter 17

Four weeks had come and gone and 404 was finally able to leave the observation room. He was so close to being back on Mars, he could almost taste it. But he knew Dodgers would be on edge over the next couple of days, so he still had to play the role of the perfect boyfriend.

The sun was bright and warm when they walked outside. He followed Dodgers to a building lined with vehicles. They took an elevator and walked past a few rows of cars until they laid their eyes on a bright blue car. It had a black stripe running down it. This one was significantly older than all the other cars around it. In fact, this car was centuries older than all the cars around it.

"What's that?" Brandon asked.

Dodgers flashed him a big smile and spun a set of keys around his ring. " ** _That_** , is my 1975 Dodge Challenger."

404's eyes widened. "Wow, nice. I bet that took you while to save up for."

Dodgers shrugged. "It wasn't too bad. The real cost was souping up the inside."

He opened the car door and reached down below. There was a click and the ebony haired man raised the hood of the car. 404 whistled at the sight.

"It's one of the fastest cars around. I'm still tinkering with the NOS and getting it set up just right, and I need to get racing slicks, but when I do..." Dodgers let out a low whistle. "It'll get the fastest time on the quarter mile for miles around."

"But you'd think a newer car would be faster." 404 argued.

Dodgers shook his head. "In theory it makes sense. They go pretty fast stock, but there's no room to drop a better engine in it. This has plenty of room and I can keep dropping better and better engines in it. Plus the seats are really easy to take out on race day to lower the weight."

404 nodded his head in approval. "Nice, very nice. We need to head out to the race track and take this baby for a spin some time."

Danny agreed. "Yeah, maybe we can do that tomorrow."

Dodgers slammed the hood of his car down and motioned for him to get in the car. He turned they key and it purred. Dodgers gave the car a bit of gas and it roared beautifully.

"So, do you remember us going down to the track when we were younger?" Dodgers asked as they left the building.

404 waved his hand in the air. "Bits here and there. Why, did anything interesting ever happen?"

Dodgers' cheeks went a little red. "One time a blew one of my tires while on the quarter mile and went right into wall. I totaled that car." He shook his head in disbelief and regret. "And we had just redid the paint on that Chevy too. We did all the work ourselves and it turned out beautifully. Neither of us had seen a navy blue car that caught the light like that car did. And then we had to get a new front end and the rusted red hood did not go well with the rest of the car."

"Did you get hurt?" 404 asked.

Danny winced. "I got whiplash. That was about it. No the worst I've ever gotten banged up was when were were coming back from a movie right after Christmas. We went and saw a movie and it was a blizzard outside - knocked the power out of the theater and they gave us a refund. Well, you were driving and we were taking a highway. We hit a patch of black ice and the car spun and my side slammed right into the cement barriers. You had to quickly spin that baby around because there were a bunch of cars coming our way, but it only resulted in us going off road into a ditch."

"Let me guess, we wound up breaking a couple of bones." 404 said.

Dodgers shrugged. "No idea. We called a tow truck but never went to the hospital. I knew I messed up my right side by bracing before slamming into the wall - you aren't supposed to do that, you're supposed to relax oddly enough. I don't think I broke anything. But my back on my right side will give me grief every now and again and I think it was from slamming into that wall."

404 just listened as Dodgers droned on about other stupid things that they did in their youth. Fortunately, he wasn't stuck in the car for long, seeing as they pulled into an apartment complex not too far into the drive. From first impressions this looked like a nice apartment complex. Everything seemed to be in its place and nicely decorated as fall and Halloween decorations lined the streets. The car passed a large building with an open sign on the door. That had to be the main office. Beside it there was a tall fence with a sign indicating that that was a pool of some sort. The passed a playground where the children who had just gotten out of school were swarming around it. Their laughter could be heard as they chased each other around.

They slowly drove through the complex towards the back to a series of small little buildings that resembled two one story houses put together. There was one that seemed to be empty, or at least not decorated on the left hand side. The other house on the right had Styrofoam tombstones and fake spiderwebs stretched out across the bushes. There was a wheelbarrow packed with dirt and a plastic skeleton sticking out of it.

Dodgers pulled up into one of the driveways and opened the garage on the right hand side. The car pulled in and he shut the garage door after turning the car off.

"Well, this is my place." Dodgers said with a nervous smile.


	18. Chapter 18

**Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I have a mixture of writer's block and too many plot bunnies. I have several directions where this story could go and not sure which direction to go in. I'm not sure if the plan should go one of three ways, but I still have a few chapters to figure it out. Do you guys want to see the options or not. Also, what would you like to see happen? It miht help me decide on a direction to go to.**

Dodgers helped him with his clothes bags that held the clothes that he acquired while being in the observation room. The door to the house opened up and he followed the captain inside.

It opened up to a laundry room with a simple washer and dryer. Just past the laundry room, was a spacious kitchen. The past the tiled floors of the kitchen into the plush dark gray carpet of the living room. There was a dark leather couch and recliner facing a dark wood coffee table and entertainment center. There was a fireplace on the right hand side near the front door. 404 followed Dodgers passed a small half bath and into a bedroom.

The bedroom had a full size bed with a dark blue comforter. There were a set of matching bedside tables. There was a dresser on the right hand side with a mounted mirror on the back. On the far side of the dresser was a door that lead to a small walk in closet. On the wall near the hallway, was a door that lead the the bathroom. All in all the apartment was small and quaint, but suited a one person's needs just fine.

"I know it's not much, but for the past five years, it's worked." Dodgers said, his voice sounding nervous.

"I like it." 404 said, trying to assure Dodgers.

Dodgers smiled and let out a half laugh, half sigh of relief. "Thanks."

404 set his bag down and looked around, taking in his new temporary surroundings.

"There's extra hangers in the closet and the right side of the dresser is empty for you to put your stuff in. Do you want any help putting your stuff away?" Dodgers asked.

404 shook his head. "I'm good, thanks."

Dodgers looked around awkwardly, which was so odd for the Captain. Strange as it was, Dodgers being nervous was starting to make 404 feel uneasy as well.

"Okay, uh, are you getting hungry at all, I can get everything ready to make dinner?"

404 thought for a minute fore answering, "Yeah, I could go for something to eat."

It would give him time to himself. He could formulate the best way to enact the next step of the plan. Anything he found could help him or make something easier.

Dodgers let out a smile, "Perfect, I'll go get everything ready to make dinner then."

404 was left to his own devices as Dodgers left the room. He scanned the room over and looked for the best places to put his belongings. 404 knew it really didn't matter. He wasn't going to be here for much longer, but he still needed to put on a show. He was so close, and he was not about to let this plan fall because of laziness. But regardless, 404 managed to find a placed for everything.

404 stepped into the bathroom and began riffling through its contents. Under the sink was extra toilet paper, and various cleaners. In one of the dwares was a toob of toothpaste, deodorant, cologne, and a hairbrush. The bottom dware had pain relievers, allergy pills, decongestants, other various houshold medicines, and a couple of prescription bottles. Bingo. Just what 404 was looking for.

He pulled out one and it read " **Fluoxetine** **: take one daily when needed.** "

Odd, 404 had never heard of the medication. It must have been an off brand. He would need to as hq what it was for.

404 replaced the bottle for the other prescription. " **Lithium: take one daily.** "

What an interesting combination. 404 was definitely going to signal hq later tonight ams see what was up with the medication. He had a feeling that those meds would help push the plan well into phase 2. But enougn about the meds, he couldn't be gone too much longer or else Dodgers might get suspicious.

The cyborg made his way past the living room and into the kitchen. Dodgers was sprinkling out flour on the counter tops and had a ball of dough resting in it. His sleeves were pushed up as he sprinkled flour on the dough. Dodgers worked the ball flat and made a triangle with his two hands, his fingertips forming the top of the triangle. His fingers moved an inch away from the edge of the flour and he dug in while spinning the dough counter clockwise. As he moved it, the dough stretched out. Once he had gone in a complete circle, the dough was placed in a hand and he started to stretch out the dough. He flipped the dough to the other hand and it had rotated slightly. Dodgers gave him a slight smile as he worked the dough, making it grow. There was a smirk, and he tossed the dough into the air. His finger tips caught it and he laid it down on a metal circle.

Dodgers spred some tomato sauce around, leaving an inch ting untouched by the sauce. He then sprinkled white cheese ont top snd layered small red circles on top. Once he was satisfied, Dogers slid the tray into the oven. Ge set the timer and washed his hands.

"While that cooks, do you want to pick out a game to play?" Dodgers asked.

404 flashed a convincing smile. "I would love to."


	19. Chapter 19

**I have a poll up with the three story possibilities on my page. Please vote and the chapters for the most popular option will go up quickly. Voting ends when I have reached as far as I can get without the poll.**

Dodgers was in such a good mood. Everything was going fantastic. He didn't burn the pizza and the two of them had a blast playing a co-op game. It took Brandon a few levels, but he had it figured out byt the time the food was ready. They watched some locall robot baseball game while they ate. Seeing robots playing sports dud throw Brandon for quite the loop as soon as he saw it. They watched the rest of the game before diving back into the game. The two of them were starting to work like a well oiled machine as though the years of seperation had never happened. Not

hing was going to bring his mood down. Well, that is until he brought himself down.

Every last bit of good feeling seeped out of him as the two of them completed the level of the treasure collecting platformed they were playing. Dodgers could feel himself start to feel numb and icy. Even the pizza he had made started to taste like cardboard. It was like meaning and joy was sucked out of him by a giant vacume and now the icyness was filling in instead.

Once the level was beaten, Dodgers excused himself and went back to the back bathroom. He riffled through the dware with the bottles of medicine and pulled out the fluoxetine. The raven haired man popped the lid and grabbed out knw of the pills. He grabbed a small glass, filled it with water, and took the pill. When he looked up, he saw Brandon giving him a concerned look from the doorframe.

"You okay?" Brandon asked.

Dodgers nodded. "I will be."

It wasnt a like, but it wasnt the truth either. Dodgers just hoped Brandon woukd leave it alone. Maybe he remembered and wold drop the subject. Dodgers really didn't want to explain everything right now. He just wanted his meds to kick in.

"Headache?" Brandon asked.

Dodgers hesitated. He didn't remember. He was going to have to tell Brandon all over again. He just hoped it would go as well as it did last time.

"No." Dodgers hesitated, "It was for something else." Dodgers nodded his head at the door. "I'll tell you in the living room."

Brandon followed him and Dodgers heart pounded with anxiety. He sat down on the couch and Brandon eagerly awaited an answer.

"Now, before I tell you, you have to promise to listen to everything I have to say, alright?" Dodgers asked.

Brandon rubbed his ear and nodded and Danny continued. "I don't think you remember, but I'm Bipolar. What everyone thinks it means is that I'll get mad at someone if they say or do the wrong thing. It's not the case. I go through periods of what they call manic periods or depression periods. Sometimes I feel happy go lucky and on top of the world and then in the next minute I might fall into a depression for a week or two."

Brandon gave him a nod, indicating that he clearly understood. That made Danny feel slightly better. It meant Brandon wasn't jumping to conclusions.

"And that's

not including the other stuff that goes with it. I might be in a slightly depressive period with high energy or vise versa. And sometimes when I hit really manic all my inhibitions get thrown aside and I'll sometimes get... frisky. And without inhibitions. .. I. .. eh... let's just say its lead to intersting stufd and we may or may not have gotten in trouble for some of that stuff."

Dodgers could feel his cheeks grow red, remebering all the times it had almost and had gotten them in big trouble. Brandon also turned a brighter shade pink as he blushed.

"And that's with me just taking Lithium to help keep me balanced out. Without it... it gets pretty bad and I might get super manic and start hearing or seeing things or it feels like the room is spinning. And the other end... I... let's just say I need to make sure I have have my antidepressants. And that's what I just took. It was an antidepressant. When I feel like I'm going to hit a low, I help counter of with an antidepressant. In the twenty first century they could take weeks to kick in, but this will work in a few hours. So tonight I might be a killjoy or won't want to do anything, but I'll be "normal" or close to it in a bit." Dodgers let out a long breath.

"Well I guess that explains the famous Dodgers recklessness I've heard so much about." Brandon replied, lightening the mood.

"Yeah." Dodgers rubbed the back of his neck. "Bit don't tell anyone or say anything about this to anyone. Only you and Doctor I.Q. know about it. If anyone found out..."

"I get it. Most people think they know how it works, but I guess its more complicated than that." Brandon agreed.

Dodgers leaned up against Brandon. "Thatnks for nor flipping out."

"No problem." Brandon aaid , grabbing a hold of his hand and giving it a comforting squeeze. He then grew a cocky smile "So... Mr. Frisky, what kinds of trouble did we get into because of you?"

Dodgers also grew a smirk. "There was one time involving an elevator in a hotel..."


	20. Update

**This story now has a rewrite. It won't be as Baffy focused, but this story will still be here. I may come back to this and update this later if there is demand for this version. You can also check the rewrite out on ao3, its under the same username as this one.**


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